Workplace Celebrations, Contests, Fun

This Wednesday, October 31st, isn’t just hump day — it’s Halloween!  You still have time to organize a bit of spooky workplace Halloween fun to celebrate one of our favorite holidays and your employees.
The Benefits of Workplace Celebrations
Whether it’s for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or the winter holidays, celebrations at work foster team unity, spark creativity, and relieve stress. Workplace parties are seen as an expression of gratitude, which boosts employee engagement and loyalty. (more…)

July is the ideal time to throw an employee thank you party (and not just because it’s National Picnic Month). The key to making your company event genuinely fun so it generates both good times and goodwill is your authentic appreciation.  By clearly communicating a message of employee appreciation and making employees feel valued, you’ll promote happiness and loyalty. Both keys to a successful workplace culture. (more…)

Share Your Workplace Love with Donuts!

Friday, June 1st is National Donut Day and a perfect opportunity to celebrate colleagues with a donut, coffee (and maybe a side of fruit)!
Donuts are a time-honored workplace treat, so it’s fun to have an excuse to pick up a box for the office. After all, they’ve been a sign of appreciation since at least World War I! (more…)

Celebrate your nursing staff this week! Every year, May 6th kicks off the start of National Nurses Week which concludes on May 12th, appropriately on nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale’s birthday.
Nurses impact our lives in so many ways.  They are with us when we bring new life into the word, at the end of our lives and the lives of loved ones, at school, in the office and help us all cope with medical issues both large and small our whole life long.
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Brighten up the last few weeks of winter with these employee team-building ideas for Pi Day on March 14!
Pi Day — not to be confused with National Pie Day, our other favorite excuse to enjoy pie — is a holiday made up by math geeks to celebrate the irrational number that describes the ratio of a circle’s diameter to its circumference.
That number is typically rounded up and shortened to 3.14, so the holiday is celebrated on March 14. And 3.14 backwards spells … you guessed it, P-I-E. As PBS describes it, “Pi Day is a holiday for math (and pie) enthusiasts to celebrate their love of numbers.” (more…)

International Day of Awesomeness is today, Saturday, March 10. Celebrated every year for the past decade, it’s the perfect excuse to have a little workplace fun!
“An acceptable level of fun is rarely defined when companies speak of their corporate culture,” Adam Gale writes for Management Today.
But a company’s attitude to workplace fun is “constantly role-modelled.”
“You can see from the senior leadership how long it’s okay to spend chatting in the kitchen (five minutes is fine; an hour probably not) or how far non-work conversation or jokes at your desk are okay,” Gale writes.
Workplace fun isn’t just for downtime on the job. (more…)

Your business depends on loyal, happy customers — show them the gratitude they deserve with an Easter customer appreciation gift, party or promotion, or a combination of all three!
Thanking customers at holidays is just good business, according to the Small Biz Trends’ article “5 Simple Strategies to Improve Holiday Sales Promotions.”
“Saying ‘Thank You’ is a fine way to show your appreciation to someone you’ve done business with. It sends a clear signal to your customers that you’re looking forward to continuing and building on the relationship that you’ve established with them,” writes Etai Elizur, COO at content marketing agency Inboundjunction. (more…)

A new Harvard Business Review article on “human leadership” is food for thought not only on engaging employees but on how to celebrate Valentine’s Day in the workplace.
The takeaway? Skip the romance, keep the candy. Focus on activities that build or celebrate compassion, friendship and kindness. (Incidentally, this week is Random Acts of Kindness Week!)
The authors of the HBR article “Why Do So Many Managers Forget They’re Human Beings?” are organizational strategists with the mindfulness-training company Potential Project. (more…)

The Official National Pie Day is Jan. 23. It’s the perfect opportunity to start off the year right with a sweet “Thank You” gift for staff or customers: gThankYou! Pie Gift Certificates.
Pie Gift Certificates from gThankYou are good for any brand of pie, cake, cheesecake or similar items — fresh from the bakery section or frozen. Recipients redeem their Pie Certificates at major grocery store nationwide.
Coincidentally, January is National Thank You Month — and nothing says “Thank You” like pie. (more…)

Thanksgiving is next week, but it’s not too late to order your business Thanksgiving gifts for the workplace.
gThankYou offers same day shipping so your business Thanksgiving gifts can arrive as soon as tomorrow!
Not only are gThankYou’s business Thanksgiving gifts fast and convenient, they’re a meaningful and practical gesture of gratitude that your workplace will love.
gThankYou! Gift Certificates for Turkey (or Turkey or Ham) allow you to give recipients the gift and joy of a Thanksgiving turkey for their holiday meal centerpiece — without the stress of handing out actual frozen turkeys or hams. (more…)

A workplace Thanksgiving celebration lets employees know how grateful you are for their hard work, at a time of year when gratitude is on everyone’s minds already.
Now’s the time to start planning.
Early planning for a workplace Thanksgiving celebration means that, come holiday-time, you and your management team will be able to focus on celebrating with employees.
And that’s key for any employee appreciation effort. Leadership needs to be present and engaged for a celebration to really work. Leaders set the tone.
If employees sense that company leaders don’t care, even the most dazzling party and generous gifts won’t matter. (more…)

The Labor Day holiday celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers. Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate your workplace and have fun  — especially if you have team members working on Labor Day itself or over Labor Day weekend.
Officially recognized as a federal holiday in 1894, Labor Day was born out of the rise of workers’ rights during the peak of the Industrial Revolution. To this day, we enjoy the benefits of this movement: minimum wage, overtime law, the weekend and more.
“We commemorate Labor Day because it forever changed the relationship between employer and employee,” according to a Gusto blog post.
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The 4th of July is behind us. Up ahead: two months of summer — sunny, lazy, distracting summer, with vacation days and “summer Fridays” tempting employees at every turn.
In other words? A recipe for disengagement. And your task is keeping employees engaged.
It’s not as tough as you may think! Keeping up engagement levels through the summer months depends on a good balance that integrates fun, freedom, fitness and focus.
If employees have opportunities for regular, low-key summertime celebrations that center on accomplishments, family and wellness, they’ll be more likely to be productive the rest of the time. (more…)

Summertime appreciation gifts keep employees engaged through the distractions of the season.
“Savvy companies maintain staff productivity and morale by embracing summer in the workplace,” says Brandi Britton of staffing firm OfficeTeam, which recently released survey results on what employees want most for summer engagement.
The ability to leave the office early on Friday afternoons — “summer Fridays” — is a popular perk for employees this year.
But showing appreciation with schedule flexibility just doesn’t work in all businesses and industries.
“For those in the hospitality, construction, recreation and outdoor industries, the summer is actually a very busy season, so these workers have no time to be distracted by the lure of lazy summer days,” according to the Daily Herald of Provo, Utah.
Many manufacturers, mom-and-pop shops and other small business owners must work nonstop through the summer months, too. (more…)

Sharing appreciation couldn’t be sweeter — share a doughnut today with colleagues, customers and friends! It’s National Doughnut Day — always the first Friday of June.
There’s a doughnut for everybody. Doughnuts are the most “craveable” treat in America.
Give your employee appreciation program a little boost to kick off the summer season — bring in doughnuts to share with your team.
Or turn the day into a fun opportunity for community outreach. Doughnut shops like Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts always give away freebies on (more…)

Earth Day is April 22 — did it sneak up on you? No worries, we’ve got last-minute ideas for fun, easy employee activities for Earth Day!
Everyday employee engagement is built through rewarding, everyday activities. Even the simplest team-building activities can energize and bring people together.
And celebrating Earth Day in the workplace isn’t just good for the planet, it’s good for people, too — and your business, according to USA Today columnist Steve Strauss, a lawyer specializing in small business and entrepreneurship.
Some benefits are obvious, as Strauss writes in a recent USA Today column.
Reusing and recycling are money-savers, there are tax benefits for going green, and green practices are good branding and popular with consumers.
But there are other benefits that are more behind-the-scenes. (more…)

Walk to Work Day and other regular health-focused celebrations help promote employee wellbeing year-round in the workplace.
Held every year on April 7, Walk to Work Day is an easy opportunity to educate employees on the benefits of regular exercise. (It’s also World Health Day!)
Walking to work has environmental benefits, too.
“The heart of Walk to Work Day isn’t just based in our physical and emotional health, but actually concerns itself with the health of the planet as a whole. Prevention magazine promoted this holiday in 2004 and it was quickly picked up by the US Department of Health and Human Services,” according to DaysOfTheYear.com. (more…)

Celebrating National Pi Day in the workplace is the perfect way to engage employees, have fun together and, of course, eat tasty slices of pie. Get ready: it’s tomorrow, March 14!
National Pi Day — not to be confused with National Pie Day, our other favorite excuse to enjoy pie — is the holiday made up by math geeks to celebrate the irrational number that describes the ratio of a circle’s diameter to its circumference.
That number is 3.14, or March 14. And 3.14 backwards is … you guessed it, PIE.
“Pi Day is a holiday for math (and pie) enthusiasts to celebrate their love of numbers,” according to PBS. (more…)

Happy International Day of Awesomeness! Yes, this is a real (unofficial) holiday — and it’s awesome to celebrate in the workplace.
A couple of coworkers started International Day of Awesomeness back in 2007. It was as easy as registering the domain “dayofawesomeness.com” and putting the idea out into the world.
Held every year on March 10, International Day of Awesomeness has a simple premise: be awesome and encourage others to be awesome.
Why? “Because everyone needs (more…)